A financial calc is often one of the most helpful resources that a CPA firm site can present to its viewers. You can help people with your site by making it to be interactive. Interactive elements are an effective way to establish an innovative and effective CPA practice website design. There are loads of specialized accounting tools for sites that are provided on the market. Because many of these calculators are sometimes high-priced, you may have to set up an individual budget for website development. However, the good news is that a great CPA website can be developed for little expense. Financial calculators are an ideal way to make a website more compelling to users. They will attract people to the website because it offers something useful to them. Additionally, it will keep people on the page for a longer period of time. Also, the longer someone is on your page, the more exposure they will gain about your business. Over time visitors will come to recognize and trust your website and maybe even use your services. These tools will often draw people back to your website for repeated visits. There are a wide number of interactive financial calculator tools available for positioning on websites. You can find them online. A basic web search will provide you with many options. After you have searched online you will need to be able to pick out the best ones. Look for calculators that are both affordable and useful. The addition of a financial calculator will make an accounting website more interactive and provide a number of additional benefits. The beauty of a financial calculator is that it allows clients to solve simple problems on their own. This is a win-win for both you and your clients. You both can save time and money by not having to meet in person for the problems these calculators can solve. Therefore it is to everyone's benefit to include one in your CPA website design. Sure a financial calculator is helpful, but it also has some hidden benefits. It can be a powerful way to promote your website. Visitors to the page who have benefited from the availability of the calculator will recommend it to friends and acquaintances in need of accounting assistance. As a result you will attract more traffic to your website. This will provide you with a great opportunity to turn those visitors into clients. So it is clear that adding a financial calculator to your accounting website has a lot of benefits. Therefore you will want to focus on finding a quality financial calculator and effectively including it on your site. One easy way to find financial calculators for your CPA website design is to search online by entering search terms such as 'free financial calculator' or 'inexpensive financial calculator.' The drawback is that you will need to thoroughly test each potential calculator to make sure that is functions optimally. My favorite source for this content is http://www.cpasitesolutions.com/content/calcs/ because they have a great selection and keep everything updated. Once you have found the ideal financial calculator for your website you need to effectively add it to your website. You can either add it to your website yourself or consult with your web developer. Most frequently, the process remains quite simple so that even people lacking programming knowledge are capable of handling the situation on their own. A simple text link that opens a new window is an easy and effective option. However, inline framed links are more aesthetically pleasing. Even though the process is simple, it is understandable that you may not feel comfortable with it. In this case you can ask your web developer for assistance. You will get some useful tips about the best place for the positioning of the financial calculator and the manner to smoothly integrate it in your website's design. Finally, it is extremely important to make sure that the financial calculator is functioning correctly. Thoroughly test it to make sure it functions accurately and will provide your clients with the help they need before it goes live on your website. The more effective your CPA website design is, the more loyal online viewers will be. As time goes on you will establish a reputation for your practical and dependable website. Satisfied site visitors are vital for establishing a dedicated customer base.

Professional help can be vital to launching your accounting firm website. With a huge number of other marketing decisions vying for your time and dollars, the challenge can be to keep control over your marketing expenses while keeping your attention on your core accounting profession. Business expectations are changing fast and most CPA practices use accounting websites. Since a financial professional's first responsibility is solving their clients' needs, most don't spend much time learning how to promote their accounting practice. Below are several tips to ensure you get the most worth from your promotional expenses without cutting into your chief activities: Even if you have the skills and experience to build a website of your own, is it really worth your time? Here's a few pointers. Outsource Your Marketing Be realistic. You are not a marketer and likely have no knowledge of building accounting websites. You simply cannot match what a professional can do. Marketing pros know how to build easy-to-navigate and useful websites that will provide value to your visitors. You just supply the content and professional website designers will develop everything for you. They will spread your links online, market your website, make it search engine-friendly and ensure that you get high quality traffic. Measure Your Results You advise your clients how to fix financial holes and plug leakages. Apply those same analytical and problem-solving skills to your marketing campaign. Develop metrics and periodically review results. If any of your marketing programs are not working, fix them. For example, if accounting websites are not drawing enough traffic it means there is something wrong with its interface or marketing. Whatever the leakage may be, you must plug it as soon as possible. Understand Marketing Channels One vital marketing channel for accountants is accounting websites. Networking within the industry and word of mouth publicity are two other very important channels. Through your accounting website channel, you cannot sell anything. But you can load it up with helpful advice and tools that will draw in new clients. Once you get leads, you can convert them into customers by mailing them helpful hints and tips in a newsletter. It is important for you to understand how your marketing funnel works. When you understand how marketing works in the accountancy profession, you make fewer mistakes. Provide Tools That Keep People Coming Back When someone lands on your website, it's essential to keep them interested. Interactive tools for accounting websites like tax calculators and retirement planners provide a valuable service that your potential customers will be grateful for. Making these tools available can get you new leads and generate service requests. Invite your leads over for an initial free consultation. Attend To Customer Service Each contact should generate a credible, informatory and welcoming answer. Teach your customer service staff to answer emails and phone calls punctually and consistently. Certainly marketing is difficult. Most clever CPAs hire an experienced, proven business that focuses on building accounting websites. Such consultants can supply great websites, tools, content, optimize your websites' search-engine friendliness, and cut down on marketing costs besides.

Accountants looking at templates for their CPA websites can easily become misled. Second-rate consultants will highlight what they know will seize your eye instead of the website your practice most needs. There are many excuses you'll hear. First of all, short-term sites are faster to build. A website that benefits you over the long term requires a collection of add-ons and features that can keep the interest of your customers. This requires investing time and resources. Would-be marketers new to online advertising also can fall prey to the slick promise of prospect conversions. Unfortunately as any person seasoned in internet marketing understands, this is a incorrect promise. Very few of your first time traffic are going to be seeking an accountancy. Almost always people visit in need of information. It doesn't matter how banging your site looks or how persuasive your sales copy is. If you don't offer a visitor the information they came looking for, the notable majority of onlookers are going to click on by without offering your site, your company, or you anything more than a glance. There are a lot of reasons not to push too hard for a first visit sale. People seeking out your webpage for an accountant are already likely to buy. Coming across as pushy can turn them off. Unfortunately the reality is that not many of your visitors are going to be immediate buyers. Some will already have an accountant relationship. Maybe he or she is still able to use the short tax forms. This doesn't mean they're not a good prospect! According to market research the average life expectancy of a client/accountant relationship is 6 years. If you take a six-year view of client development, almost 100% of your website traffic could be future clients. After all, accountants retire. They get married and move, change their practices or go to work for companies. You can't know what will happen down the road. In addition to quality of information, think quantity. You want to have so much great content that the visitor finds many reasons to return. Envision the difference. Your competitors are offering just a service description and a contact sheet. What you offer is a caring compilation of valuable resources. Every time clients visit, they connect with your brand. Long term marketing isn't about making a sale, it's about positioning yourself as the natural solution to turn to when the prospect is ready to buy. Down the road it's a pretty safe bet that everyone will need an accountant, and if your website has been engaging and informing a prospect for months or years, when that time comes the odds are you won't even need to make a sale. The prospect will call you pretty much ready to buy. So how can you identify CPA website templates with a long term marketing strategy? It's fairly simple really. What content is being offered? Financial guides and free reports are great soft sell tools and are very effective at attracting return traffic. (You can also use them to cross-sell off-season services to current clients.) Expert materials strategically showcase your skills and ability to save your clients money. Make sure visitors can access them easily. They should be divided up by topic and searchable by keyword. Encourage return visitors with other great features. How about interactive financial calculators? Tax due date pages? Downloadable tax forms and publications? Make sure to offer a newsletter. If some marketing guru counsels you to snare email addresses before allowing clients to utilize parts of your website, don't listen. Your visitors do not enjoy "traps". If you start demanding contact information you'll turn off your top prospects. Whatever they don't get from you, they understand they can find from via your competitors. Always keep in mind your long-range marketing as you decide between several options for high quality CPA websites. On top of regular features like service descriptions, driving directions and contact forms, your website ought to include the long term methodology described in this article. You'll see that over time, your long term strategy will pay dividends, not only in more client conversions, but in better accounts and healthier customer relationships.

The most desirable initial contact with potential clients for pretty much all small firms are quality CPA websites. Above all else they need to create a professional impression about your business. Your online presence provides you with 24/7 marketing for your firm. However, your website content must always be fresh, and this calls for hard work. This makes sure your site is listed high enough in search engine results pages (SERPs) so that potential prospects can come across your firm. This is hard work, and one strategy is to hire an intern that will help you manage your web marketing programs. New webmasters and students are a strong labor pool. They generally welcome the opportunity to create web marketing programs. Some tips are below to help practices work with an intern to support marketing efforts and manage CPA websites. Intern Skills It is a good idea to look for potential candidates who have existing online marketing skills. This includes both search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) experience. It isn't an impossible task to improve your search engine results. However, it takes a lot of effort and you must be patient. Acconting firms must consistently generate fresh content to maintian professional CPA websites. Examine writing samples, especially if any are written about financial management and accounting. You may need to spend some time teaching them your business, but unless you get really lucky and find a good writer that already knows about your business it's time well spent. As a CPA, you understand the importance of a professional and dependable image for not only your prospects, but for your current clients as well. Although your intern is not in a client-facing role, their work will be a direct reflection of you and your firm. You should carefully examine their work and make sure that it is of sufficient quality to represent you online. Working with Your Team Even though the intern role may be a temporary one, it is a good idea to treat your intern as if they are a permanent employee. You want to think about how compatible they will be with your permanent staff. They will all be working together. You want to be sure there is seamless communication between the intern and your staff, so that the site content they produce can properly reflect your firm's image. Campaign Effectiveness Your intern can provide valuable ideas for increasing the performance of your SEO and SEM programs. Keep in mind that it takes several months to see any kind of results. They can make valuable contributions for your CPA website. It is a good idea to consider their input. Considering all your options is also a good idea. Your intern can contribute greatly to your firm's revenue stream. Once the initial prospecting campaigns are over, you may decide to continue working with your intern beyond the original scope of the project. The field of accounting is very competitive. Business school students and aspiring web developers can add great value to your website's success.

The economic climate of today is very harsh. As such, CPA firms are contracting professional designers to produce CPA websites to support their marketing initiatives. However, the benefit of your CPA website goes beyond just advertising, it can also greatly trim your business' overhead and also generate efficiencies in terms of your staff expenses. One great method of trimming your operating costs is switching from using traditional newsletters through the postal service, and changing to an email service. There are many available. They will develop and send your electronic newsletters for your firm. This brings down the costs of printing, postage, and staff costs to label and fill your envelopes. It also brings qualified leads to your website. Another great use for your website is distributing tax forms. It is very labor intensive to mail tax forms to your clients. It is also very expensive. Not only must your firm pay for postage, but the labor cost associated with this practice is not billable, either. Instead, it is very easy to create a resource page on your website for downloadable tax forms. Every tax season, mailing your tax organizer is expensive in terms of postage. It is also a burden on your staff. This can cost hundreds of dollars, depending upon the size of your client base. It also takes a lot of cycles for your office staff to print and collate the documents, then fill and address envelopes. A CPA website allows you to create an electronic PDF which your clients can download and print themselves. The most sophisticated CPA websites even have their tax organizers set up as a secure form which can be submitted securely online from the site itself. This has the potential to save you and your client time and money. Tax season also creates a large postal service expense. Many clients save tax preparation until the last minute, as April 15 arrives. This can be frustrating for your client and for your firm. You don't want to miss this deadline. As such, you sometimes need to use overnight mail. A CPA website can include a secure file transfer feature, which allows your clients to submit their confidential documents quickly and safely, without the postal service expense. Website visitors like many things about modern CPA websites. One of them is a "Where's My Refund?" feature. This feature is very uncomplicated to set up. In addition to enabling your customers, it also attracts prospects and website leads as it gives details about their tax refund. While forward-looking CPA websites' most crucial role is advertising, it can also save you money, reduce your operating costs, gain new customers, and help you better serve your clients.

Note the free reports, tax due dates, links to tax forms and publications, a portal for transferring accounting files, interactive financial calculators, email, and a host of similar tools designed particularly for website owners in the CPA field. Perhaps a financial adviser or business consultant could use a lot of the pages on this website,but it would be thriftless for a business like a retailer. A site like this is not designed to be useful to a broad assortment of companies. It's genuinely only intended for accounting and CPA firms. It´s worth the time and cost of retaining skilled designers for a number of big corporate accounting companies, but for most small and medium sized enterprises, especially in these problematic economic times, it´s past time to reflect on new solutions. Finding a CMS that specializes in CPA websites will trim your expenses and at the same time improve your administration over your website.

As a busy professional CPA, starting your firm from scratch is a fun, exciting process. A vital part of that work is to make sure that your brand new organization engages enough customers to maintain itself through tax season. Then after the tax season passes by, you will need to develop your business even further so that you make sure it can maintain itself through the next season as well. You need to evolve your business into a stream of revenue. This stream must be steady, and that leaves you little time for marketing. You must successfully market your business in order to ensure long-term success. Interrupt and outbound marketing techniques are expensive and they do not work. They are usually only 3% effective at best. Shifting your marketing funds to use more modern inbound marketing techniques is a much more solid strategy. This can have a large impact on your firm's growth. Most inbound marketing techniques are free to implement. Your only cost is the expense of labor it takes to create them. Inbound marketing will give you more time to do what you do best, which is accounting. It will also free up more of your budget so you can invest in other parts your business. The most effective strategy for inbound marketing includes a well balanced mix of the following elements: Creating a Blog Make yourself known as a thought leader by starting an accountant website blog. This is an excellent way to establish yourself as a subject matter expert in the field of accounting. Show off a little, but don't be too pretentious. A blog is a great place to show your prospects how much you know about the field of accounting Make Sure You are Visible to Search Engines Optimize your website to increase your search engine rankings, establish domain authority, and increase your site's online visibility. Optimize your content for your desired keywords. This makes sure you are found on the search result pages where you want to rank. Networking Using Social Media Be sure to create social media accounts in Facebook and Twitter. This helps you network your firm and create a social ecosystem. In this way, people can see the faces behind the firm. It also helps you establish trust. Links from social media sites rank highly with search engines. This can help with search engine rankings for your website. One added benefit of using Facebook is its feature-rich marketing toolset. Facebook has powerful advertising features for targeting. This allows you to offer specials to your Facebook fans such as coupons and discounts. Promotions such as these can take off on their own. They require very little work. Video Sharing Sites Producing and distributing great website videos are an excellent way to educate and in some cases, entertain your community. Your videos can be educational, such as how to prepare tax paperwork. They can also be customer references demonstrating how you helped a client achieve success. Videos also carry great weight in terms of search engine authority. Article Distribution Blogging offers many benefits, and article distribution opens up a whole new channel via the web. This not only helps your rankings with search engines, but it brings interested leads to effective websites for accountants. Inbound marketing is great fun. It is far easier to execute an effective inbound marketing campaign than a marketing campaign that employs traditional outbound techniques. It is also far less costly when compared with outbound and interrupt marketing campaigns. An inbound marketing campaign serves up steady, long-term results as well.

Today's economic picture is not very bright. However, this is an outstanding opportunity to develop your client base. A recession such as this is a worry for everyone, but with those concerns comes opportunity. Make arrangements to visit with your business customers, new leads, and customers that are well-connected and offer them services just for them. This can result in not just increasing your client base, but it can also help you increase your service rates as well. Before the busy tax season, a great way to get started with your clients is to plan 4th quarter tax planning sessions using CPA websites. Tomorrow's economic uncertainty offers a great atmosphere for your clients to understand that their lives and future depend on impact planning. An important metric for the impact of successful tax planning is money. However, boosting the confidence of your client and giving them some hope is the real value. This provides a real competitive advantage for your business. Your leadership gives your clients confidence and a sense of hope. This will make them more dependent on your firm. It will also help them manage day to day stress. Reducing stress can of course improve your clients' lives. Effective tax planning over time is very important. It is much more than just reducing the level of taxes your client needs to pay. It also has to do with investing, managing cash flow, and in some cases, planning an estate. You want to bring your clients lives back to order. This is the true value of effective tax planning. The natural result is managing fear, reducing negativity and alleviating stress. This can significantly improve the quality of your clients' lives. This type of planning session, when done properly, can have a great impact on your business in terms of clients referring their friends, family, and co-workers. This puts your accounting firm ahead of your competitors. It is an excellent way to expand your customer list. You can also increase your service offerings for current customers. At the planning session, you should: 1. Listen to your clients concerns about the economy. Validate these concerns. Your client is not thinking that everything will be fine tomorrow, so try not to sound too positive or you will seem disconnected from their perception of reality. 2. You need to relate the concerns of the client to their situation. It is not enough to just listen. Everyone is affected differently by recession, so speaking generally will not be as effective as if you connect someone's personal concerns about the economy to their situation. 3. You must be realistic. Everyone needs to file taxes, it is inevitable. This idea focuses the client's attention back on their life. It becomes less about the actual tax paperwork. 4. It helps to provide hope to your clients. You can create a CPA website reference library of topics on which you can coach, which will help you improve your clients' lives by giving them a sense of direction. All of these points work together. Here's how: Joseph, everyone is feeling stress and anxiety about the economy, and the reality is that it will likely become worse before it improves. This can be especially difficult for you because you have kids who are heading to college and because things have shifted with your business. To adjust, let's do more than just file a return, let's do some strategic financial planning. No matter what the future brings, you'll be able to adjust accordingly. You will be prepared. It is important to remember that recessions bring anxiety, stress, and uncertainty. In order to make informed decisions, you must provide strong leadership for your clients. It isn't just about filing a tax return. A successful and inexpensive way to step-up your business's client base is to arrange tax and financial planning with influential customers. This increases your visibility in your community. Your clients will tell their friends and family how your business did much more than just file their tax documents. They will describe how your firm took the time to help them develop a plan for the future and manage their lives.

For any company, leads are really significant. This is especially true for CPAs. Leads must be categorised and nurtured in order to ready them for use in business. It insufficient simply to accumulate leads. Developing new accounting customers is an important goal. However, lead nurturing also makes sure you don't let opportunities from the business landscape slip by. In today's economy, you can't let an ideal business relationship slip away. You want to be thorough when expanding your business. The practice of lead nurturing makes sure you take advantage of all new opportunities. Nurturing leads can seem to be repetitive and tiresome. It is a critical practice, however, in developing any new business. Here are several reasons why as an accountant, you should use lead nurturing to develop meaningful relationships with potential customers. 1) More than three quarters of prospects are nurtured leads By ignoring future opportunities that may arise from unnurtured leads, you run an enormous risk of losing revenue. Knowing whom you have already touched and with whom you can expand your professional relationship allows you to significantly grow your accounting firm and expand your networking reach exponentially. 2) Over time, leads can change their mind It is a good strategy to give your leads room to evaluate your firm's services. Asking for a 'yes' or a 'no' right away is risky. Your leads need time to consider the possibilities. They need time to choose what is best for their particular situation. Continued touches mean that your accounting firm stays at the front of their mind. 3) Lead nurturing is easy After your first lead touch with your accountant website traffic, you should follow up with a phone call. This is a very easy way to expand your potential business. Light touches that are well timed show discretion and concern for your leads, and do not add substantially to you or your staff's workload. 4) Lead nurturing is a great way to build trust Show your leads you care. This makes them more likely to engage with your accountant firm. Ultimately, the human side to accounting converts leads into customers, whereas the business side can make you seem distant, cold, and unapproachable. 5) Nurturing your leads shows follow-through The process of following up with a lead shows consistency, even in the very preliminary stages of business dealings that will translate into dedicated, consistent, and high quality results. With lead nurturing, your goal is to convert them into a client. In order to do this you need to win them over. 6) Nurturing your leads helps you understand them better In learning which parts of the accounting website lead nurturing processes bear the most favorable results, you will be able to empathize with your clients and to ultimately serve them better through the life of your business relationship. 7) Lead nurturing puts you ahead of your competitors After you first contact your leads, a series of easy, simple touches is an excellent strategy. This will put you ahead of your competition, especially those who do not nurture their leads. 8) Repetition is avoided with lead nurturing For leads who have rejected you altogether, more touches can frequently feel too pushy and are very bad PR- sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie. Separate the prospects that turned down your accounting firm to avoid duplication. This will make sure you don't present a negative impression to leads who have yet to decide. Guest Poster Brian O'Connell is the owner and founder of CPA Site Solutions, one of the leading businesses in the America dedicated solely to creating terrific accountant websites. His firm at present provides sites for about 5000 CPA and accounting firms.

It's not uncommon for CPAs to both welcome and resent busy season. They love the increased income, which often amounts to a significant chunk of the firm's yearly profits. Regrettably, plenty of accountants don't touch their accountant websites and other key marketing channels for the entire duration of the season, and they completely give up on staying healthy. Even taking into account the extra money it brings, all too often, busy season ruins a practice. To get the most out of busy season and leave the stress behind, successful CPA firms follow these 5 steps: 1. They Pick High-Quality Accountant Websites In filing season, every minute counts toward the bottom line. An hour here or there printing out documents or filing paper returns can really add up, preventing firms from reaching revenue goals. Keeping the office simple is the name of the game, which is why well-prepared accountants use professional accountant websites to increase efficiency. The following website features take care of a lot of the grunt work that can slow down a CPA during busy season: - Secure file exchange - Online tax organizer - PayPal or another credit card processing program - Automated newsletter - FAQs - Map and driving directions 2. They Update Their Accountant Websites BEFORE Busy Season Hits One of the greatest contributors to stress is a disorganized work space. Paper piles and file stacks can easily overwhelm desks and surrounding areas when work load is at its peak. And what happens when a client calls and the CPA can't find their information easily? Even when they're confident they can locate any piece of paper quickly, they're foolish to take a chance with client data. The most successful firms take time before busy season to prepare for the onslaught of work. These CPAs arrange files, update their accountant websites, and clean out inboxes. And they're careful to "hibernate" any projects that can wait until after April 15th by placing them out of the way where they won't add to the general chaos. Once work starts coming in, it helps to spend a couple minutes at the end of every day to tidy up the office. Folks who do this report feeling empowered and well-prepared for the next day. 3. They Aren't Afraid to Fire a Client All accountants have clients who trigger ulcers when they walk through the door. These difficult folks might take issue with every single fee, leave nasty comments on firms' accountant websites, or just come across as highly unpleasant and antisocial. The truth is, there's no need to put up with such problems - and successful accountants have learned to ease these clients out. When accountants "let go" of the troublemakers, they realize they can put more energy into cultivating their relationships with the better clients who bring in more revenue and are actually fun to work with. 4. They Make Sure They Have Enough Support Historically, accountants have been the biggest administrators. They answer e-mails, handle returns, manage their accountant websites, field phone and website inquiries, and other tedious tasks. Wouldn't it save time to hand all this off to someone else? Busy season is the perfect time to hire interns. Many interns are fresh from schooling and more than happy to get real-life office experience. Both accountants and interns benefit - and busy season can become much more manageable. 5. They Refuse to Burn Out During busy season, many accountants work 10, 12, 14 hours a day - or more. But not all of them. The wisest CPAs don't allow the job to take over their lives, even when workload is at its height. Follow their lead. Instead of burning the candle at both ends, set a fixed time at the end of the day when you power down your computer and go home – no matter what. A few more hours of sleep will greatly enhance your mood and boost your efficiency. This year, try out some of these tips - and most important of all, make your health and well-being a priority. Once a week, forget about accountant websites, tax organizers, and dissatisfied clients - and relax. Do something that puts a smile on your face and is really different from the daily grind, such as going for a bike ride or just leisurely driving with a friend. Once you do, your business will be all the better for it!

Borders Books' failure supplies potentially helpful insight for accounting professionals about the importance of accepting new marketing technologies such as productivity software and websites. What may Border's Books have tried prior to its chapter 11 filing that can help you improve your accounting practice? Border's downfall came about because it failed to realize the necessity of new technologies. Not one technology expert was taken aback by Borders' rapid failure or that Borders' hesitancy to recognize the importance of e-books and electronic technologies might crush the long-standing retail powerhouse. For financial professionals, new technologies like websites and online networking might seem every bit as far from their business model as they must have to Borders. So pay attention to Borders' missteps! Understanding emerging technologies will protect your firm from facing this kind of crisis. Historically, communications didn't change much until the last few decades. Then, electronic communications quickly overtook print communications, making products and services much easier to find, access, and deliver. Increased access to information online means less paper production, which is more environmentally friendly. Today's world is online. Almost every reading material you can think of is available electronically. People automatically turn to electronics nowadays. And that makes modern marketing tools like attractive websites for accountants essential. It's sad. Borders was once a revered company. Few companies could match its worldwide brand recognition, valuable stock, and distribution muscle. But despite the technological changes over the last decade, Borders chose to pursue a strategy of business as usual. They did not get on board with e-books or e-communication; Their technological literacy was minimal. This was a crucial strategy error. No clever marketing could make up for the fact that their business model was becoming obsolete. Technology continued to advance and Amazon and Barnes and Noble were early adopters. It wasn't long until their e-book and online sales added significantly to their bottom line. Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble pulled ahead of Borders based on their electronic savvy. Meanwhile, Borders slept. Previous customers of Borders who became excited by the electronic possibilities had to use more accommodating booksellers. As in any industry, once a customer has made a switch to another company and finds it satisfactory, that customer is almost impossible to retrieve. Even after Borders figured out that they were losing market share, they kept doing the same old thing. Meanwhile new technological horizons kept opening up. Industry watchers and customers alike soon discovered that Borders' marketing team was outdated, lacking in technological comfort and vision. Border's heel-dragging continued. It's almost as if they feared technology. They turned their attention to marketing ploys. That further eroded their business model. In an effort to shore up eroding profits, Borders raised prices in retail stores and online, antagonizing their loyal customer base. Customers revolted, moving their business to Borders' competitors. This was the final straw for Borders Books, which was forced to file for bankruptcy. As this case shows, reluctance to recognize and respect a changing business environment can quickly lead to death spiral of wrong decisions. Accountants are not unlike every other occupation. They must introduce new technologies and communications avenues such as websites for accountants. For accounting businesses this the primary lesson we can discover from the ruin of Borders Books.

A Professional videography team Guarantees a Consistent Video A professional videographer can ensure a good quality video product that will convey a message about your business that you actually want to communicate. Needless to say, you want your CPA company to distinguish itself from your competition. Make sure that your video lifts you above the crowd. Your home page should have a video that introduces your CPA firm. It is a good idea to carve out a budget for a professional videographer. What does your business do? You can add a lot of personal character to your videos to connect to your audience. Make sure to use a tripod so that your videos don't give your audience vertigo. Make sure your video holds your prospects' attention. If you think a pro will accomplish this goal, then by all means, create a budget for a professional videographer. The most important benefit of hiring a professional videographer is that the final product will be consistently high-quality and web ready. What is Your Video Strategy? You will need to create a strategy before your video shoot begins. Make sure it is well planned. Budgeting is very important; the longer the video, the more your video is going to cost. Generally, videos should be one to two minutes long. Viewers will click away after five or even four minutes. Make sure your video is not that long. You will also need to decide who is going to be in your video. You will want to effectively sell your CPA firm's services. This can be accomplished without a partner in the video. Consider using your employees to represent your CPA firm. They will cost you a lot less than professional actors. Make it happen! Teach and Delight Your Audience Most importantly, your video needs to deliver useful, relevant content that captures and maintains the interest of your viewers. There are literally hundreds of effective websites for accountants vying for your audience. To make yours stand out, make sure your video captures and holds visitors' attention. The tone of your video is very important. It is something you should carefully consider. Think about whether humor is appropriate for your business. Do you want to make your visitors laugh? Do you want your video to appear more serious? Both methods can be effective. Either way, what is important is that your video is realistic. Videos that bring qualified visitor traffic to successful websites for accountants allow prospects and clients to connect with your firm on a personal level. This builds trust and ultimately drives your visitors to action. No viewer will respond positively to a video that is nothing more than a veiled sales pitch. Distribute and Market When your video is finished, make use of it with sharing sites. Market your firm with your video! Post your finished video to sharing sites such as YouTube, Metacafe, and Vimeo and be sure to embed the video on page on your website. This not just shows your video, it provides a convenient link between the video on the sharing site and your own website. Your CPA website will benefit from the domain authority of the video distribution site, which will favorably list your video on search engine results pages.

Take the time to contact template providers individuals separately for answers regarding their products treatment of these features. I wish I could say, "you get what you pay for" but I'm afraid that's not even true. If any one of these SEO features hasn't been specifically addressed the template cannot be properly optimized. From time to time this isn't a a big issue. If you own the only accountancy firm in your town with a website you will very probably do acceptably without ever actually optimizing your site, but keep these factors in mind when evaluating the cost benefit. An accounting website template that can never be optimized to search engines like Google could become a massive liability to your company in the future if your market changes.

Let's you and I have a discussion about some pointers to help improve your website's online profile throughout the design phase. Your practice's CPA website design can be absolutely flawless and nevertheless be a complete failure. For it to earn money the appropriate prospects have to be able to locate your site at the right time, and the most dependable way to accomplish this is to earn a first-rate position on the search engine results pages. Title Tags Matter Meta tags are an important ingredient of the CPA website design operation, and the single most authoritative meta tag is called the page's "Title". Don't try to take over the internet with unreasonably long title tags. You can make a title tag as long as you want but after 70 characters or so the search engines are going to ignore them. I'd recommend using some variation on this title tag: MyTown, ST Accounting : Practice Name A firm name isn't usually a strong enough brand for people to just type in, so insisting on putting the firm name first is usually a foolish vanity. Titles are a primary element of a pages relevance to a specific search term so unless your firm has a recognizable brand like "Netflix" or "Kelly Clarkson" it's not likely to actually be used as a search term by people looking for your service. Also, your firm name is probably not a terribly competitive phrase. If you only get 70 characters to describe your page do you really want to spend them on your firm name? Unless there are 10 other firms with exactly the same name it's pretty likely you'll be able to get on the first page for that search term without any trouble. Stick to your town, your state, and a primary keyword like "CPA". Page Descriptions The "Page Description" is also a meta tag, and it's rather like the red-headed stepchild to the "Page Title". Google doesn't use it to rank sites anymore so a lot of CPA website designs ignore it, and this is a mistake because Gooogle actually displays this tag as part of it's search results. This makes a good page description an important factor in converting an impression into a click-through. Again... Google isn't going to let you go nuts on your description. There's a 150 character limit so make it short and sweet but, like a headline, enticing enough to get people to want to read more. Traffic Tracking Tracking software allows you to monitor the activities of visitors to your site and Google analytics, while free, is the best tracking program you can get. It will tell you how many visitors you got, how long they stayed, which pages they visited, and much... much more. Google Analytics also has the ability to show you what keyword phrases people used to find pages of your site. This product has so many advantages that I would make it mandatory for you to have if you are looking to improve the position or ranking of your site in the search engines. All you need to do to make it work is add a strip of code to the bottom of each page. With Google Analytics, you can find out the location of your page viewers down to the town through the individuals IP address. This can help you determine where your marketing dollars are returning value, and where you might be wasting money. Not sold? It's much easier to add this system to your CPA website during the design process so PLEASE take the time to find out a little more. Offer Relevant Content Meta tags in and of themselves used to be enough to get a CPA website good rankings, but scores of meta driven sites began to crop up with truly terrible content. This resulted in pages of spammy irrelevant content appearing at the top of search pages and Google quickly changed their algorithm. The search engine robots have become very sophisticated and can easily compare a pages tags to it's visible text and make sure they match. Google is hip to all the dirty tricks that spammers used to rely on like cramming the page with keywords, using tiny text, writing hidden text on the same colored background, etc, so don't even waste your time trying to be clever. You need to take the time to write some good, high quality content that will demonstrate to Google that the page is truly relevant to the title by using your title tag keywords in the text. Don't go too crazy. Google can also recognize "keyword stuffing" and will discount the page if it has too many keywords in it. The best way to optimize the page is to NOT worry too much about optimize the page. Shoot for about a 1% keyword density, so if your page is 500 words try to use each keyword in your title about 5 times. Every Journey Begins with a Single Step This won't be all you'll need to do, it's just the start. It won't make any difference how search engine friendly your practice's accounting website design is you're going to have a lot more work to do to rank well in today's competitive market. You'll need to do some "off-site" search engine optimization by getting as many "backlinks" as you can, and you'll need to improve your ranking in the local search results by claiming your company and asking your clients to leave your practice a number of good reviews. If you follow these fundamental CPA website design pointers, though, you'll be on just the right track to success.

At some point you've heard the phrase "backlinks". Backlinks are links elswhere on the internet that point to your website and they are fundamental to your website's search marketing push. These links can be very helpful in determining the relative popularity of relevant accountant websites and their position on search engines like Google. You'll observe that many website owners all of a sudden want to be your friend once you publish your website, particularly as you become more successful. You'll start getting emails from companies you've never even heard of that want to "exchange links" with you. A lot of people refer to this strategy as "link swapping", although that's something of a misnomer. Link swapping was a method we used back in the days of yore. For example, suppose I was an accountant in White Plains, New York and I wanted to find backlinks. Logically I would try to find relevant businesses to link to, for example other businesses in White Plains and other accounting firms from out of town. If you had an accounting firm in Albany, for instance, I would have contacted you and offered to swap links with you. I put a link to your website on my links page, you put one on yours pointing back. We both get a boost in the search engines. Unfortunately this doesn't work any more, but there are ways to get around this restriction by using blogs. For this to work the blogs need to have "unique URLs". This means the blog can't be hosted on the same domain as the website it's promoting. Rather than linking to each others websites, we can link to each other's accountant websites from our blogs. If you don't have a blog, or if your blog is on your main website and doesn't have a unique URL you'll need another web property to exchange links. It may seem like a win-win situation where you both receive SEO benefits, but there are several factors your must consider before accepting. 1) Who's there? Don't take an offer at face value. Take a little time to research the company you'll be working with. Keep in mind that people are going to see and even follow these links so it's important to make sure you're not linking to "bad neighbors". If you provide a link on your site to another company's website, people on your site will assume that you endorse them and vouch for their business. People will hold you responsible for this endorsement. If you're linking with spammers and scammers the damage to your reputation won't justify any SEO benefit your accountant websites might enjoy. Proceed with caution. Don't link to any partners you have doubts about. 2) Make sure the link offers real value. Other accountant websites offer the best links. Links from other types of firms still have value, especially if they're in your market, but they won't look very relevant to you. Some companies have very specific instructions on where they want you to put the link and how it should be set-up. Sometimes they'll insist that you put their link on a certain page. Some will insist that you link from your main site, even your home page or other high-traffic page. Obviously these would be very high value links. But where do your links show up? Many of these sites are scammers. Try to find the page where they'll be putting your links. More often than not, you will see a page buried deep in their site, hidden behind many vague page and link titles. This is a completely lopsided trade. They're getting a high quality link from a respected accountant and you're getting an obscure link from a spam site that doesn't offer you any real SEO or traffic value. Other sites will give you a great link for a month or two, then they'll quietly move or remove it after a month or two and hope you don't notice. 3) Discretion is the better part of valor. The system Google uses to keep track of link popularity is called "PageRank", and they're very proud of it. It was invented by Larry Paige, one of Google's founders, back in his Stanford days and it's been getting tweaked and improved many times a year ever since. They are sincerely trying to provide the best possible search results to their users, and they work very hard and spend a lot of money to achieve this goal. They DON'T like it when people try to game the system. When groups of websites get together and form what Google calls "link farms" they reserve the right to penalize websites, or even de-index them altogether. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does the results to a business can be catastrophic. Just ask the folks at overstock.com about the penalties for trying to manipulate Google. They got caught trying to scam Google for higher rankings and Google slapped such a fat penalty on them that the online retailer decided to start their SEO efforts all over again from scratch with a new domain name: O.co It is not unusual for companies that email you out of the blue to be considered link farmers, especially if they don't have a valid, non-SEO reason for wanting to link to accountant websites. As you can guess, this isn't a "neighborhood" you want to be associated with. For all the help their links can offer, being blacklisted can take it all away, not just from them, but all other legitimate links you have gathered. It just isn't worth it. I'm not saying all offers to exchange links are bad. I'm simply advising caution. Marketing accountant websites is tough, and you will have to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. But you also need to preserve a clear head and think seriously before committing your firm's reputation to a new link partner. Link exchanges may give the impression of being a trouble-free shortcut to success, but every shortcut has an inclination to get you lost someplace unpleasant.

Invisible "tags" aren't as significant as they were a few years ago, but they still matter. This post teaches how to use them appropriately.

Accountants might share a title, but their function can vary widely - from providing tax prep alone, to providing QuickBooks support to small businesses, to representing clients before the IRS. That's one of many reasons I relish marketing them as much as I do. One truth binds them together: regardless of how unspecialized or specialized their company, they need to obtain clients, or they won't have a business. This hurts not just you, but your entire community. Irrespective of how talented or client-centered an accountant is - without enough customers to bring in the revenue and keep the doors open, his business will cease to be. Therefore, one of the first and most important question any accountant can ask is, How do I get my clients? The best way is with effective accountant websites. The internet is today what the yellow pages was a few decades ago. These days, you have to have an online presence, or your marketing efforts will fall flat. So what can you do to help your firm thrive in this environment? Below are 10 pointers for how to obtain and make the best use of your accounting website: 1. Ensure that your website isn't amateurish. These days, it is extremely easy to create a website. There are several choices out there that allow you to obtain a domain name (your URL or web address), as well as easy-to-use software programs that will allow you to tailor your website to target the clients you want. 2. It's best to use a contractor to set up your website for you. While your strength is with numbers, a professional web designer knows how to make your site look great and run smoothly. The key to designing accountant websites is to keep visitors on your site once they are there. To that end, your site should be both lovely to look at and chock full of helpful info. 3. Make the best possible use of social media platforms for marketing accountant websites. You can increase your exposure by simply creating profiles on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The king of social media right now is Facebook. Start there. Make a personal profile first, and then mock up a simple "fan" page for your accounting firm. Ask your friends and current clients to "like" your page and you're on your way. You can use these sites to send out advertisements about business deals and reminders about tax season. 4. Links are vital to generating traffic - so, on your website, be sure to post links to your social media pages. If someone visits your site and likes what they see, this will be an easy way for them to help you spread the word. A "like me on Facebook" or "follow me on Twitter" link will expose you to even more potential clients. 5. Your clients who have websites can use a plug - and adding a link to their site gives you a benefit, too (because the more links on your site, the better). People judge you by the clients that have hired you, so brag a little about who trusts your work. 6. Take advantage of merchant websites that can help you get leads - such as eBay and Craigslist. Sites like these, along with other, similar ones, see mega numbers of visitors, and when you advertise in their classified section, your visibility goes through the roof. Normally, there is no charge to list services; advertising with these sites will expand your reach to well outside your local client base. 7. Don't forget about ads in the newspaper that include your web address, which still work well for local clients. Getting people to click on links and visit accountant websites is a lot easier than getting them to drive accross town to visit or even just pick up the phone and call. Check your local newspapers. Chances are they have an online edition that uses banner ads as well as a services or marketplace section. Look into websites for publications in surrounding towns that are a reasonable driving distance for potential clients. 8. Hike it up a notch; see if you can find websites that cater to accountants alone. Sites like Accountant-Finder.com list accountants for a small fee, making it that much easier for leads to find you. 9. Bid system and lead generating websites such as adknowledge.com are plentiful online. Use them the right way - as part of your overall marketing efforts - and you could see some nice results. Do your homework here and ensure that you investigate the site before you join it. Some have fees involved and some are fly-by-night operations. If you want quality clients, use a quality lead generation site. 10. Lastly, make it a point to find the veterans in your field. Ask how they find clients, and then mimic them. There's no point in reinventing the wheel. Using Internet resources such as Websites 4 Accountants is a great way to learn new tricks and tips that can greatly improve your lead generation, which will then increase your sales. Folks who tell you it's simple to find clients and build a thriving accounting company are, sadly, not telling the whole story. However, don't let this bum you out. Making sure you have a high-powered accounting website is a relatively easy way to make this dream come true.